My wife proclaimed the second reading at Mass this morning, including this little portion that immediately struck my ears:

Always be ready to give an explanation
to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,
but do it with gentleness and reverence … (1 Peter 3:15b-16a)

Reverence for God, I thought, or reverence for the inquirer?

Perhaps some of us have enough to do to be prepared to give an explanation for Christian hope. I know that in my distracted life, it’s hard to be always ready, especially a few minutes before Mass. The other week, a parishioner pestered me with a few questions shortly before the entrance song. Good questions, to be sure. Questions that might go down well over a beer or a coffee. But I wasn’t ready to give my reasons for hope.

My friend came back to me after Mass and apologized for distracting me. He might not have done that if I had bitten his head off.

I haven’t consulted the Scripture scholars on this one, but I’d like to think that reverence for the inquirer is one of the best placements for giving honor to something of the faith.

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About catholicsensibility

Todd and his family live in Ames, Iowa. He serves a Catholic parish of both Iowa State students and town residents.

about Todd Flowerday

A Roman Catholic lay person, married (since 1996), with one adopted child (since 2001). I serve a parish in music ministry.

about John Donaghy

John is a lay missionary since 2007 with a parish in western Honduras. Before that he served in campus ministry and social justice ministry in Iowa. His ministry blog is http://hermanojuancito.blogspot.com

He also blogs reflections on the lectionary and saints/heroes/events of the date at http://walktheway.wordpress.com

He'll be a long-term contributor here analyzing the Latin American bishops' document from their 2007 Aparecida Conference.